Hundreds of thousands of centrifuges are operated daily in medical offices and laboratories throughout the United States. A centrifuge contains a rotor which is spun about a drive shaft axis by a motor, for example at speeds of up to 6,000 rpm or more. The rotor is adapted to hold one or more types of fluid containers, such as specimen or blood tubes, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) plates or strip tubes, bottles, bags, etc. A cabinet surrounds and supports these components and protects the operator in the event that a specimen container breaks while the centrifuge is spinning. The speed of rotation of a centrifuge is closely controlled to ensure the generation of a proper G-force on the container for the separation of the fluid into constituent parts. Centrifuges are required by regulation to be calibrated against a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified tachometer only once per year, regardless of rigorous daily use or extended periods of non-use. Centrifuges can and do fail between annual checks in ways that are not obvious to the operator, and operator errors resulting in improper fluid separation can occur.
Although centrifuge operation is generally safe and accurate, the consequences of an improperly functioning or improperly operated centrifuge can be significant. For example, Clinical Case Study 62:12 pages 1565-1569, published in 2016 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, documents the case of a 12-year old female patient who was improperly treated for hyperammonemia, with resultant adverse side effects, as a result of a centrifuge being set to run at 1200 rpm instead of 1200 G's. The improper setting causes an insufficient G-force to be generated and incomplete separation of blood samples to be achieved, thereby causing false high levels of ammonia to be indicated.